1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a speech recognition device for toys for recognizing the speech of a number of unspecified people.
2. Description of Related Art
In conventional speech recognition devices for toys, a speech recognition device for toys for recognizing a specific person is designed to recognize words spoken by only one person, and the speech of the speaker has to be registered in a RAM or a ROM before he or she actually uses the toy. Although the recognition rate of the ROM is not bad, there exist the following problems; no one other than the registered person can use the toy, the registration of a user is required, and the registered speech is lost once the power is down. The speech recognition device is not suitable for use in toys in particular for very young children. Among the problems is a critical problem that the speech recognition device allows only one person to use it, and therefore, the device limits the application thereof.
On the other hand, a speech recognition device for recognizing speech of unspecified people is designed to recognize the speech of any person, and no registration is required before the device is actually used. However, it is required to input speech of a number of people in a ROM in advance, and the initial production of speech data requires difficult work. In addition, as the number of words or speech to be recognized increases, the work gets more complicated and the capacity of the memory for storing the increasing speech data has to be extended, high production costs thereby resulting. Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 2-39798 discloses a related conventional example. In this conventional example, the length of an inputted spoken word is measured, and when the measured length is determined to coincide with the length of the word determined by a speech registration switch, speech is outputted. However, in a case where the length of a word is measured, there occur continuous malfunctions in a noisy place, and it is found that the device is not totally suitable for practical use.
In addition, although the device is designed to recognize words or speech of unspecified people, it only can recognize in the order of ten to twenty words of speech, and the device cannot recognize every word people speak. Due to this, the user has to consult with an owner's manual every time he or she wants to know what type of speech can be recognized, and in this sense the speech recognition device which has to originally be convenient is not convenient.
An object of the present invention is to provide a speech recognition device for recognizing the speech of a number of unspecified people using a microcomputer or a speech synthesis IC, wherein the length of a pause or pauses of two or more words is measured, and whereby speech is recognized.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a speech recognition device for recognizing the speech of a number of unspecified people, wherein the length in time of a word spoken by a speaker for recognition is measured, and whereby the speech is recognized.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a speech recognition device for recognizing the speech of a number of unspecified people, wherein the length in time of a word spoken by a speaker is compared with the length in time of a corresponding speech synthesized word, and in the event that the result of the comparison falls within a predetermined tolerance, the word spoken by the speaker is recognized, and whereby the recognition of the word is effected.